Symbols gone crazy

I discovered this same problem when I couldn't get quote marks or apostrophe. Finally sat down and went through the entire keyboard straight, while pushing Shift and while pushing Fn. Discovered that almost none of the symbol keys is where it should be. I did find quote marks and apostrophe, but have to hit Shift comma and Shift period, to get them. Have been in touch with Acer techs, but nothing they've suggested has worked (removing and replacing battery), reinstalling keyboard driver, installing some chipshift program or something like that. I've also checked the number lock and shift lock and they were not on. Sticky keys and toggle keys were off. language was set for Canadian English, and though I tried British and US English, neither worked. Nothing spilled on the keyboard, and nothing was installed other than Firefox browser.

The keyboard appears to be defective, but if you replace it and you still have issues, then the matrixing chip on the motherboard is bad and you will have to change the motherboard as well. Let me know, and vote.

1 Suggested Answer

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Tell us some more! Your answer needs to include more details to help people.You can't post answers that contain an email address.Please enter a valid email address.The email address entered is already associated to an account.Login to postPlease use English characters only.

Read the instructions for "Using the U.S. - International Keyboard" below.

Note: You will now have a keyboard icon on the
taskbar (usually on the right side). To switch between keyboard layouts
click the keyboard icon on the task bar and choose which layout you want
to use. Changing the keyboard layout will only affect the log on
profile used. No other users will be affected.

Windows Vista

Start-->Control Panel-->Clock, Language, Region-->Change Keyboards

New Window: Click the Change Keyboards button

New Window: Click the Add button

Select United States-International keyboard

Click OK

From drop down menu (Default Input Language) select United States International

Using the U.S. - International Keyboard
If you followed the above directions carefully, your keyboard will
now react slightly differently than it did before. First of all, notice
that if you strike the single apostrophe (') key, nothing happens. To
type the single apostrophe now, you must strike the single apostrophe
key and then strike the space bar. When you strike the spacebar, the
apostrophe will appear.
The next thing to note is that the quotes (") key behaves the same
way as the apostrophe key. You must first strike the quotes key and then
strike the space bar in order to create the (") symbol. These two minor
inconveniences are more than made up for by the ease with which you can
now type the special characters.
To type the special characters, two keystrokes are required. To type the ?, you need only strike the apostrophe key and then the letter a. The other characters are just as easy:

? = ' + a

? = ' + e

? = ' + i

? = ' + o

? = ' + u

? = ~ + n

? = " + u

To type the special punctuation characters, you need to hold down on
the Alt key while you strike the appropriate punctuation mark. On some
keyboards, only one of the two Alt keys will work for this.

¡ = Alt (hold down) + !

¿ = Alt (hold down) + ?

Using Cryptic Codes
If, for some reason, you don't want to change your keyboard, you can
always type in the troublesome cryptic codes. Using this arcane system,
the following codes apply:

? = Alt + 0225

? = Alt + 0233

? = Alt + 0237

? = Alt + 0243

? = Alt + 0250

? = Alt + 0241

? = Alt + 0252

¡ = Alt + 0161

¿ Alt + 0191

When using this utterly out-dated system, there are two important
things to remember. First, when you type in the numbers, some keyboards
require that you use the "numeric keypad" located to the side, rather
than the numbers along the top. Second, on some keyboards, only one of
the two Alt keys will work for this.

Download the Microsoft settings utility for this keyboard and check through the options settings, especially for "smart quotes." The smart quote, if enabled, may not show up at either end of the quoted phrase until you press the apostrophe/quote key the second time; then both will show in their proper places, and one of the quote marks will be inverted (a nice style touch, if you want it).

try hitting the left alt and the left shift button together, then try it out by pressing shift question mark. I had the exact same problem and i think you can alternate between french and english keys by hitting these two buttons together.